The field of the invention is theme or amusement park ride attractions. More specifically, the invention relates ride attractions using motion bases having one or more degrees of freedom.
Theme or amusement park ride attractions have become increasingly popular. Amusement rides can generally be characterized into rides that include ride vehicles that travel along a track and rides that are fixed relative to the ground. In fixed rides, a passenger platform or ride vehicle is typically situated on a motion base having multiple degrees of freedom. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,247, incorporated by reference. These types of motion bases are also frequently positioned adjacent one or more projection screens. A series of images or a motion picture is then projected onto the screen. For added realism and effect, the movement of the motion base can be synchronized with the projected images.
The motion base can move the passenger platform or ride vehicle in several different directions including angular movements, such as roll, pitch and yaw, and linear movements, such as heave and surge. These various degrees of freedom can be used to simulate the effect of actually moving in synchronization with the projected images or motion picture.
For example, in an amusement ride that attempts to simulate the feeling of racing through city streets in an automobile, the motion base might use a combination of roll and yaw to give passengers the feeling of moving around sharp turns while the image on the screen shows a view of rounding a curve in the street. In conventional motion bases, however, yaw motion is imparted to a passenger platform or ride vehicle via a central pivot point. Consequently, the ride vehicle spins or rotates about a generally central location. Unfortunately, this motion does not realistically correspond to the movement experienced when moving around a sharp turn in a vehicle. Rather, a real vehicle turning a sharp corner tends to xe2x80x9cfishtail,xe2x80x9d with the back end of the vehicle tending to rotate about the front of the vehicle. A certain degree of realism is thus lost in conventional ride attractions.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved amusement ride that more realistically simulates turning movement of a vehicle. It is an object of the invention to provide a motion base with multiple degrees of freedom, including eccentrically offset yaw-type motion that resembles fishtail movement.
In a first aspect of the invention, an amusement ride includes a motion base having multiple degrees of freedom, a projection screen adjacent to the motion base, and an audience platform eccentrically pivotable on the motion base. The audience platform is pivotable about a pivot point eccentrically offset from a central region of the audience platform. A motor drives the audience platform in a pivoting movement about the pivot point.
In a second aspect of the invention, the motor is located either on the audience platform or on the motion base.
In a third aspect of the invention, a method of producing fishtail type movement on a motion base includes the steps of moving a motion base in more than one degree of freedom, projecting moving images on a screen adjacent to the motion base, and pivoting an audience platform on top of the motion base, about a pivot point that is eccentrically offset from a central region of the audience platform.
In a fourth aspect of the invention, an amusement ride includes a ride vehicle that is fixed to the audience platform. The ride vehicle is pivotable with the audience platform via a motor on the motion base. An on board projection moves with the ride vehicle.
In a fifth aspect of the invention, the amusement ride of the fourth aspect has the motor disposed on the audience platform rather than on the motion base.
The invention resides as well in subcombinations of the elements and steps described.